Saturday's fears, Sunday's fantasies

Not even the arrival of Father's Day on Sunday keeps Saturday programming from catering to women in fear, women scorned and women betrayed by other women. The ID network specializes in such fare and offers up the new series "Poisoned Passions" (10 tonight, TV-14).

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Posted Jun. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Jun. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Not even the arrival of Father's Day on Sunday keeps Saturday programming from catering to women in fear, women scorned and women betrayed by other women. The ID network specializes in such fare and offers up the new series "Poisoned Passions" (10 tonight, TV-14).

"Passions" offers a refresher course on a memorable tabloid tale of the 1980s, a story of lust, money and proximity to power. Vicki Morgan, a beautiful longtime Los Angeles fixture, had settled down as the mistress of married financier Alfred Bloomingdale. Upon receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, Bloomingdale cut Morgan off from his largesse, sparking a palimony suit.

Details of their private affair and salacious stories of sadomasochism provided gossip columnists fodder for months, if not years. Bloomingdale and his wife's social connections to President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan added to a tabloid bonfire that reached conspiratorial conflagration when Morgan was found murdered in 1983.

Theories have abounded about Morgan's demise. The story would inspire a number of books, including Dominick Dunne's 1990 novel, "An Inconvenient Woman," which inspired a 1991 ABC miniseries of the same name that starred Jason Robards and Rebecca De Mornay. "Passions" is a good example of how cheaper video technology and "re-enactments" by largely unknown actors have replaced the glitzier guilty pleasures of the network miniseries.

Other Saturday night entries in the female fear genre include a repeat "48 Hours" (10 p.m. on CBS) about a single highway that has witnessed the murder of 20 women. For those who prefer their paranoia in scripted form, there are television movies galore, including "Gone Missing" (8 on Lifetime, TV-PG) and "A Mother's Nightmare" (10 on Lifetime, TV-14). There are also "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story" (8 on Lifetime Movie Network, TV- PG) and "Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter" (10 on Lifetime Movie Network, TV-PG).

— "True Blood" (9 p.m. Sunday on HBO, TV-MA) enters its sixth and final season. Like "Game of Thrones," "Blood" is based on a series of popular books of genre fiction. But there the similarity ends. "Thrones" is frequently baffling to those who have not read the novels, or to those who don't follow the overlapping plot lines with a spreadsheet or flowchart. But for all its complications, "Thrones" is epic; most scenes unfold with a grandeur rarely found on television or on the big screen.

For its part, "Blood" seems to have climbed out onto ever-more arcane branches of make-believe hierarchies, and straddles that fine line between merely confusing and entirely pointless. For those still following, "Blood" will play out its final season in 10 episodes.

— Fantasy appears to have trumped fact. At a time when viewers will flock to the latest screen incarnation of "Superman," all but inhabit the fictional kingdoms of "Game of Thrones" and can't get enough of the bloody paranoia of "The Walking Dead," interest in real events (news) and past events (history) appears to have declined.

So it's little surprise that those series flourish while "The Borgias" (10 Sunday on Showtime, TV-MA), a gorgeously produced, well-acted melodrama based on actual people and events, has been canceled. On tonight's finale, Pope Alexander (Jeremy Irons) encourages his son, Cesare (Francois Arnaud), to succeed him and turn the papacy into a dynasty. TV viewers may never see how that plan turns out, but there are plenty of other ways (caution: some require reading) to follow the story.

— A former professional wrestler lends his macho persona to the sport of fishing on "Off the Hook: Extreme Catches" (8 Sunday on Animal Planet, TV-PG). The host tends to shout every line, as if screaming over the music at a loud bar or shouting over the roar of a motorcycle's engine.

— The Boston Red Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles (4 p.m., NESN).

— Major League Baseball (7 p.m., Fox). Check local listings for regional coverage.

— On two unaired helpings of "Zero Hour" (ABC, TV- PG): Laila schemes her escape (8 p.m.); Hank has doubts (9 p.m.). For those who don't recall, "ER" star Anthony Edwards appeared in this short-lived series as a professional skeptic ensnared in a mystical conspiracy after the disappearance of his wife.

— Actor Michael Rapaport recalls his Brooklyn high school, where tales abounded that deceased students stalked the corridors on "The Haunting Of ..." (10 p.m., BIO, TV- PG).

How often is the filming of a combat movie interrupted by a genuine war? The 1969 World War II saga "The Bridge at Remagen" (8 p.m. Saturday, Military Channel) was in production in Czechoslovakia when Soviet troops invaded that country in August 1968. The cast and crew, including stars George Segal, Robert Vaughn and Ben Gazzara, were ferried out of harm's way in a fleet of taxis. Filming was completed in Italy and Austria.